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Denmark: Red Green Alliance withdraws support for Libya intervention

By Red-Green Alliance, Denmark

March 30, 2011 -- ESSF -- The action in Libya is no longer just about obtaining a ceasefire
and protecting civilians. Instead it is about taking part in a civil
war, and that is something the Red-Green Alliance will not support.

“The direction that the action has taken is in clear opposition to
the UN resolution, and there has been no serious attempts to
establish a ceasefire”, saids Frank Aaen, the alliance's defence policy
spokesperson.

“Since last Friday they had succeeded in stopping the attacks from
Gadaffi on the civilian population. It was a correct decision to stop
his attack, and we are pleased to have been part of it”, Frank Aaen
states.

But lately the operation has changed its character, so now we are
involved in a civil war. The last coupl of days the rebels had received
air support to help them push forward, and even though we feel a great
sympathy with the rebels, it is not the task of the military action to
support one of the parties in a civil war.

No attempts on ceasefire

The development is, according to Frank Aaen, in clear conflict to the
mandate that the UN and the Danish parliament (Folketinget) have
granted. And that implies that the initial conditions of the Red-Green
Alliance for supporting the operation are no longer fulfilled.

“It was crucial for us that the political goals were ceasefire and
negotiations. And now we have to state that there has been made no
serious effort in that direction whatsoever, even though it is point
number one in the UN resolution”, Frank Aaen says.

Several countries and the African Union have tried to boost the
negotiations, but they obtained no support from NATO or the foreign ministers of the coalition. They prefer to continue bombing.

The Red-Green Alliance will work to get the operation back on the
UN track as soon as possible. A civil war and external attempts to
enforce a change of regime in Libya might last years and will cost the
lives of many civilians.